9/11... again

I always commemorate the anniversary of 9/11. I am doing it this year again with this post, although I don't write long posts about it. From my thoughts and memories about it, read this post from 2008 and that post from 2009. However, I will say one of thing of what happened in the USA since. On the 11th of September 2001, democracy in the West and in the USA in particular was attacked. Islamic fundamentalism showed its ugly nihilistic head. Sadly, nowadays democracy in the US is falling apart, not because of an alien force of Islamifascists, like almost a quarter of of a century ago, but because of the Xian fascists who took power. So yeah, I am feeling a tad cynical and gloomy today, thinking about it.

Substituts

Bon, dans le même ordre d'idées qu'hier, voici une liste de substituts québécois et parfois régionaux aux produits américains qui risquent de devenir prohibitifs.

ALMArique

J'ai trouvé ça sur les réseaux sociaux. J'ai bien ri. La réponse saguenéenne aux tendances hégémoniques d'un certain voisin du Sud. Ou l'SUDE, comme on dit chez nous.

Mafalda siempre!

Lundi dernier, la page Facebook officielle de Mafalda a partagé ce gag. Je me demande bien pourquoi...

THE Blue Monday

Today is Blue Monday. Usually, I wouldn't care less. Because it's pure pseudoscience to begin with. Because there are worse Mondays than January Mondays and the first working Monday of January is worse than any other in the month anyway. However, not this Blue Monday 2025. This is a proper, genuine, bona fide Blue Monday,the Blue Monday to end all Blue Mondays, THE Blue Monday. There are two reasons for it. The first one, you can probably guess. Yup, the Swine is back. The other reason is that my current job sucks. And things are probably going to get worse before they get better. To a point where pretty much every working day for me will be Blue Monday, until further notice. So yeah, I'm not in a very good mood.

"If you are the dealer, I'm out of the game"

I blogged this very song in 2016, from a fellow Montrealer, one of the greatest that lived. Because of similar circumstances. That's all I will say about it for now. Because it beats doomscrolling.

Well this cheered me up...

I know nothing is certain, I tend to be pessimistic about human nature and decency or lack of, because I don't dare to have broken hopes, but this video got me in a good mood for the evening...

January, 20th, 2021

I don't date things the American way usually, I put the day, then month, then year, but I made an exception for the title of this post, because of the circumstances. One of the advantages of having a working day that ends early, is that you can watch historical live on TV. So I watched the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States of America. This is the second live inaguration I've made, the first one was the one of Barack Obama and you can read my impression here. Rereading it now, I'm surprised that I feel that I have been harsh on George W. Bush. He was not exactly my kind of president, but by hindsight, he was a decent man. I did not watch the inauguration four years ago, but I shared a filthy joke I made about it, which got me the attention of a troll. Biden may not have the eloquence or the charisma of his former boss, but given that he won against the Swine and pretty much saved American democracy (or at least contributed to its salvation), I am even happier than I was back in 2008.

What is Fascism

I have never read his novels, but I did read a few of his essays and since he died in 2016 I have been missing the academic and intellectual that was Umberto Eco. Today he is more relevant than ever, because he wrote once a list of 14 characteristics that define fascism. You can read about them in this article. 14 characteristics, each and everyone of them fitting perfectly the sitting Swine in chief. All I am going to say about the revolting events of yesterday, when that fat oaf and wannabe Mussolini tried to achieve his coup d'état with the help of his pathetic cultist bullies, is that should not have come as a surprise. And that he should be deposed, like the fascist wannabe tyrant that he is.

Le roi des cons

Je partage encore une fois Le roi des cons de Georges Brassens. Ai-je besoin de dire pourquoi? Et je sais qu'il reste moins de deux semaines, mais ce roi-là, faudrait vraiment le déposer avant qu'il ne détruise complètement son pays.

This Land Is Your Land

 Well, I believe this song is in order today, given the news from yesterday. Need I explain more? I don't know Woodye Guthrie, except from a scene I loved in Mrs America, which you can see here, and which in itself shows why this is so fitting and will be for the weeks and years to come.

About a Troll

It is election day in the USA and I do not intend to dwell on it. I hope for the best, but fear the worst. I don't like to blog about politics much here, but I thought I would reshare an anecdote which has been on my mind quite a lot recently. Some of you may remember, but the last troll who commented on this blog was a Trump supporter (and I believe a female, do we call them Trumpets?). Anyway,I had made that filthy joke upon his inauguration and someone in the comment section called Lynney62 had written this diatribe (you can read the full post and the exhange here):

"Sad that you are filled with such ugliness and hatred that you can't appreciate a momentous day in America's great Republic of freedom. If you dislike the historical ceremonies of America so much...why are you living in this country? Wouldn't you be happier in some other country such as Venezuala or France?"

Now this is, in a nutshell, what is wrong about the most ardent supporters. Bad English, for one (what the hell is a "Republic of freedom"), the vitriolic accusations, the ignorance (I do not live in the US) and making the equivalence between the leader, the ideology and the nation. For Lynney62, an American, or at least a good American, is and should be a Trump supporter or else. For the others, they are bad patriots at best, traitors in fact, and they can go to other countries. You know, the bad ones. Not like the Republic of freedom. Whatever the result of the elections, Lynney62 will still be around, sadly. But I do hope that at least sanity and intelligence will prevail and that trolls such as her will not have their way in the real world. They can always comment on this blog, and it will be my pleasure to make fun of them.

Frank Drebin sings the American National Anthem

A year ago, I was waking up and America, or maybe Russia, had elected Donald Trump as President of the United States. I was wondering how to mention it on the blog, how to remember that hard wake up and I thought I better laugh at it. I know the Swine in Chief has a rather fetishist love for his country's national anthem, so this is I believe the proper homage for the man and those, in the US and abroad, who put him into power. The Star-Spangled Banner, sung by Lieutenant Frank Drebin in The Naked Gun. I remember fairly little of the movie and its sequels, but this is just unforgettable.

Why I still love the USA

It is Independence Day today (the day, not the movie). Usually, I wish happy Independence Day to my American friends and readers and that's it. This year, with the Swine being POTUS, I know many of them don't feel like celebrating. And those who do, if they read my blog, well, they might be blind admirers of the Swine, like sadly there are too many. I even had the honour (sort of) to receive the visit of one on this post about the Swine. This is what the troll (lynney62, let's name and shame her) said in a comment:

"Sad that you are filled with such ugliness and hatred that you can't appreciate a momentous day in America's great Republic of freedom. If you dislike the historical ceremonies of America so much...why are you living in this country? Wouldn't you be happier in some other country such as Venezuala or France?"

This was my reply: "@lynney62-I have never read on my blog, even from other trolls, a comment as stupid and ignorant as yours. For your information I don't live in the US but that is a country that I love and admire. And unlike you I would never ever confuse the country from its government or its most unsavoury citizens or leaders."

In essence, and I am writing this as a sort of commiseration for all of those who read this and despair that Trump is president, this is why I love the United States nevertheless. Because the American people is not its current president, in fact let's not forget that he lost by a wide margin the popular vote (and got there with some foreign help). I love them because of things like this. Because my favorite actress is half American from her father and she is also a beautiful human being in her own right, regardless of her amazing talent as an actress. Because in spite of its religious fundies, its vulgar, loud mouthed narcissistic reality TV stars turned politicians, despite its trolls (yes lynney62, I am referring to you), the USA has intellectuals,great writers, secular humanists, free thinkers and overall, sane people.

Cate Blanchett about the Swine

My wife got me this little bit of news. Not really a big thing in the great scheme of things, but it made me happy: in a recent interview with Jimmy Fallon, my favourite actress Cate Blanchett commented about the election of Donald Trump. She pretty much sums up what I think of the character, and in the only way one can describe: not by preaching, but using sarcasm and ridicule. She IS the greatest actress alive, she also has great comedic acumen. The POTUS better not tweet anything nasty to her. Anyway, since Cate Blanchett is half American from her dad (a Texan), she might be eligible to the presidency herself. So let me be the first to say it here: Cate Blanchett for president! And on a side note, for now on I will refrain from calling Trump by his Christian name. On this blog, he will be referred to as the Swine.

A quote from The Manchurian Candidate

This is probably (I hope anyway) the last time I am going to blog about American politics, real and imagined, for a while. Out of masochism or for cathartic reasons, I am reading at the moment The Manchurian Candidate. You probably know (like me) one of the two films that have been made out of the novel. I have seen both, the first one is by far the best and a true classic (in fact the second one is pretty rubbish in comparison). Anyway, I try not to label any work of fiction prophetic, as it often a stupid and inaccurate label: writers are not prophet neither do they tend to be. But there are things in there that are borderline identical to what we are seeing right now in the US. And among the many quotes that have been haunting me since I started reading, this one struck a chord:

"Johnny was doing great. From a semi-hangdog country governor, Raymond's mother said, utterly unknown outside domestic politics on a state level in 1956, he had transformed himself into a global figure in 1957. He had a lot going for him beyond Raymond's mother. His very looks: that meaty nose, the nearly total absence of forehead, the perpetual unshavenness, the piggish eyes, red from being dipped in bourbon, the sickeningly monotonous voice, whining and grating-all of it together made of Johnny one of the greatest demagogues in American history, even if, as Raymond's mother often said to friends, he was essential a lighthearted and unserious one. Nonetheless, her Johnny had become the only American in the country's history of political villains, studding folk song and story, to inspire concomitant fear and hatred in foreigners, resident in their native countries. he blew his nose in the Constitution, he thumbed his nose at the party system or any version of governmental chain of command. He personally charted the zigs and zags of  American foreign policy at a time when the American foreign policy was a monstrously heavy weight upon world history. To the people of Iceland, Peru, France, and Pitcairn Island the label of Iselism stood for anything and everything that was dirty, backward, ignorant, repressive, offensive, antiprogressive, or rotten, and all of those adjectives must ultimately be seen as sincere tributes to any demagogues of any country on any planet."

Does it remind you of anyone? Last time they visited us, the Ticklers saw the book and told me reproachfully(as they don't want Wolfie to hear scary stories) that it looked like a scary book. They have no idea how right they are. It is absolutely chilling.

A filthy joke to cheer you up

I know some of you must be feeling down about today. So I thought I would share a joke that might cheer you up. At work, near the end of the day, one of my colleagues said that the preacher who talked during Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony said that the rain falling was God's action, a manifestation of the Almighty blessing the new administration, or some such thing. I then said: "Well, I am no theologian, but surely not unless it's golden rain."

And that's it. I have no idea of how accurate the words were, or indeed if the rumor about Trump's ahem, particular tastes are true, but nevertheless, this filthy joke deserves to be a great unknown line. And I have no remorse whatsoever. The new POTUS is a very, very little man and deserves any filth we can throw at him.

All I am going to say about this

Like many people in the world, I was both appalled and disgusted by the election of Donald Trump as the president of the USA. So the US has voted in office a loud mouth, bullying, ignorant, White trash jerk... and partially, for some of the voters, because he was all that. More worryingly, he was backed, and will bring to the White House with him the ultra-religious right, among others his VP, who is by any other name a Christian mollah and even worse than him. Angry, did I say? Outraged, yes. But, I will try not to panic, as a certain David Wong suggested. I do think this is potentially catastrophic news, the free world might not be so free if Trump and his cronies have their way. But like Wong said, we can do something and I remember how I was feeling before 2008 about American politics. It got better. So I will say one thing, from my favourite TV drama The Wire, a quote from Poot I read again today. It is not a fancy analysis, but it sums up my feeling about the whole election: "World going one way, people another yo." You can see the scene in context here. In essence, this is what happens. The US is going another way. Backwards.

Question existentielle (294)

Je suis comme tout le monde écoeuré de ce qui s'est passé aux élections présidentielles américaines, quand un crétin démagogue soutenu par la droite ultrareligieuse a été élu, alors je me pose cette question existentielle:

-Y a-t-il vraiment une raison pour se consoler de ce qui se passe?